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Some things I made / ate in January:

The first roast veg salad I've made in a loooong time. I think I overdid it with roasted veg one year and got so tired of it. I also don't think I'm particularly good at roasting veg, it never turned out spectacular in terms of texture :( This salad was also just alright: a cumin, coriander and lemon dressing with spelt, roasted zucchini, roasted pepper, roasted potato and sweet potato, and some massaged kale.

Stir fried rice cakes...in which I learned the trick is actually not the stir fry the rice cakes itself. I stir fried the veggies together in advance, and also kept the rice cakes soaked in the fridge so they just needed a wee bit of heat to soften up. For each meal, I would mix the seasoning with some water and briefly boil the soaked rice cakes with the seasoning water in the frying pan (goal is to have all the water evaporate off) and then stir fry together with the veggies.

One more daal with the last of the suspiciously dirty Sobeys red lentils. Chard is a good veg to add into daal in terms of texture.

Not pictured is the escarole I bought along with the chard when it was on sale (?!) at Metro. It's hands down my favourite leafy veg to eat in a dish by itself. It's like a cross between iceberg lettuce and napa cabbage, the cooked texture has soft leaves yet crisp stems. The warm escarole salad is the only reason why I would go to Gusto101.

Calzone at Hey Lucy with Tien, who has been craving calzones for many many months. The dough is amazingly soft, but the filling was only alright.

Tacos with Alex, also the most effort I've put in for a food photo while eating out for a while. The tacos themselves are tasty, and not super heavy unlike other places. However I can't forgive this place for not doubling up on the tortilla as its impossible to pick up the saucier taco.

cade

Some more first impressions of perfume samples, including a first from Jo Malone:

Gucci memoire d'une odeur
I was thinking in my head that the opening has some similarities with my beloved Hana-no-hatsu, but before I could even finish that thought, the scent turned super plastic-y, wahhh D: Plastic like play doh, which I’ve gotten the same impression from other scents before, so it must be some common enough note that I’m wrongly associating but nevertheless super unpleasant to me. I still get whiffs of the sweet-ish floral opening (what I think osmanthus smells like), but it inevitably turns play doh-y at the end of the same breath. Based on this fragrance’s very long description on Fragrantica, I’m going to guess what I think is osmanthus is actually the “indian coral jasmine print”, and what I perceive as play doh is bitter almond? I’m not sure whether I don’t perceive the chamomile or just don’t recognize it. As it develops, the play doh note becomes less and less prominent, but the rest of the scent stays the same. I don’t get a mineral impression at all. Overall feeling pretty meh about this.

Jo Malone wild bluebells
Sweet, watery, floral. It may sound like something I don’t like, or at least care for, but this is really hard not to like. It’s very approachable, inviting, sweet as in the character trait. I don’t imagine a young girl wearing this, but rather a grown women that retains her jubilant childish character. The kind that hosts garden parties, or perhaps the cuter side of mori-kei. It also smells pretty similar to other…scents, which is slightly ironic because I fail to name any specifics. Maybe it’s the mix of the transparent floral (oh boy do I understand what transparent means now) and the fresh / greener note? Also the dose of white musks in the base is quite common. Christine Nigel is the nose behind this, and although Jean-Claude Ellena is known for his water-colour style at Hermes, and watercolour-y is exactly how I would describe this scent. This doesn’t change much at all throughout the 4-5 hours that it lasted on my skin. Overall will be using up the sample, but not interested enough in a full bottle. Jo Malone is also quite expensive for a cologne concentration -_-

Jo Malone black cedarwood
I was not expecting a creamy yet fresh floral opening, it is quite nice. I somehow also get a slight incense impression, perhaps from a woody and powdery feeling? It reminds me a little bit of Amouage Fate Women without all of the spices. Actually, upon comparison, this is more woody. The wood gains more prominence as time goes on. I have a hard time believing this is the black cedar wood & juniper scent, since every review points to the spices and yet I detect absolutely none. But there's no other fragrance in the brand's offering that has black cedar in its name...time to visit a counter and try a tester out. I do actually like this enough to contemplate a full bottle, but only at the discounters. 

snap

More loot from Rui, Ippodo kuki sencha:

I actually like this more than regular sencha, in comparison, there is thicker body and makes for a more satisfying drink. It does require more finesse when pouring, since the stems float on the top and is prone to escaping into the cup. Overall would buy again whenever I order from Ippodo again (maybe in Autumn for their seasonal matcha).

huile

Some abstract-ish morning light

library

Had to do yet another personality assessment for work, this one ended with a free form question to describe yourself. I answered:

• INTJ in Mysers-Brigg, pretty accurate
• Imposes expectations on others as I do on myself
• Prefers not to consult others opinion until I decide on a position
• Enjoys developing deep knowledge on a subject
• Feels satisfied from planning and organizing
• Creative and imaginative
• Generally pragmatic but intensely sentimental about certain things
• Values trust, awareness, compassion, and (don't recall the last item I put)

It was a struggle to answer and gave me traumatic flashbacks to writing personal statements for grad school application. 

50 Philosophy Ideas

This is my first book report to Rui & Ben:

Overall the book is easy to digest (I asked for an intro book on philosophy where I didn't need to look up terms) and broad in exposure (but then again I don't know what I don't know). Perhaps essential in a person's general education?

The following quotations stood out to me:

According to Hume’s own account of moral action, all humans are naturally moved by a ‘moral sense’ or ‘sympathy’, which is essentially a capacity to share the feelings of happiness or misery of others; and it is this sentiment, rather than reason, that provided the motive for our moral actions. Reason is essential in understanding the consequences of our actions and in rationally planning how to achieve our moral aims, but it is itself inert and unable to prove any impetus to action.

The section on moral luck is very interesting but a little too long to summarize (“the condensed idea” is “does fortune favour the good?”)

On virtue ethics, the approach does appeal to me especially after reading all the tangles in morality:

“...being a good person and knowing right from wrong is not primarily a matter of understanding and applying certain moral rules and principles. Rather, it is a question of being or becoming the kind of person who, by acquiring wisdom through proper practice and training, will habitually behave in appropriate ways in the appropriate circumstances.

This approach is totally news to me and also appeals to me for similar reasons of elegance:

Bertrand Russell’s theory of descriptions [...] was founded on the belief that painstaking analysis of language and its underlying logic is the surest route - perhaps the only route - to knowledge of the world that can be described using language.

The clearest explanation of modern art I've ever read (tho not that I read about such subject):

The idea of art as representation and it’s close association with beauty held sway well into the modern period. In reaction to this, a number of 20th-century thinkers proposed a “formalist” approach to art, in which line, color and other formal qualities were regarded as paramount and all other considerations, including representational aspects, were downplayed or excluded. This form was elevated over content, paving the way for the abstractionism that came to play a more dominant role in Western art. In another influential departure from representation, expressionism renounced anything resembling close observation of the external world in favour of exaggeration and distortion, usually bold unnatural colors to express the inner feelings of the artist. Instinctive and consciously non-naturalistic, such expressions of the artists subjective emotions and experience were regarded as the hallmark of true works of art.

On Ludwig Wottgenstein’s concept of “family resemblance”: 

In short, there is no hidden depth or essential meaning: our understanding of the word is no more or less than our capacity to use it appropriately in a wide range of contexts.

lady

Diptyque Eau Capitale
So I was super excited to sniff this because it was labeled a chypre. Actually I tunnel visioned so hard on it being a chypre that I didn’t remember the note at all. Hence I didn’t know it was going to be rose heavy. Now I feel very let down due to no fault of the perfume. Actually perhaps a little fault since how can a bergamot / rose / patchouli be called a chypre??? (ok upon further reading, this is what the "modern" formula for chypres has turned into). I would describe this as a very jammy rose, and is quite similar to Parterre’s A Tribute to Edith from my memory. It again confirmed that jammy roses are unwearable for me. It’s too intense 😭 this scent does lighten up in texture as it develops. After an hour, the patchouli appears! It’s a very aromatic patchouli, but with some earthy aspects retained. But what do I know, I haven’t smelled any patchouli centric perfumes to know it’s (various) scents. But based on what I’m smelling here, I think I am a patchouli fan! The rose occasionally weaves in and out of the patchouli, this is definitely the best part of this perfume.

The rose is actually not as intense when worn on the skin, much to my relief. But it also weirdly doesn't project as much. I can clearly smell the tester strip when placed about a meter away, but pretty much can't smell it at all when sprayed on the back of my neck. 

Overall, this kicked off a search for floral x clean patchouli fragrances (while avoiding rose, this is a herculean challenge). Stay tuned!

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Shorter thoughts on some that I sniffed for more data points:

Lancôme Idole
Feeling pretty ambivalent towards this one, the opening is fruity (green apple?) then floral. I see the mass appeal of fruity florals, and I don’t dislike the scents, but it’s definitely not my thing. Unfortunately this turns back to fruity after an hour and stays that way.

Miss Dior Rose n Rose
I got another sample of this since I lost the previous ribbon. The opening smells fresh, and the scent retains the freshness feeling even when the florals appear. Something like a sparkling lemonade with rose syrup, but the drink is stratified with the syrup on the bottom. The scent isn’t actually syrup-y or sweet though. The rose is definitely a fresh rose, like a handful of fluffy petals. Wish I’d gotten a sample vial of this to compare with my other fresh roses. Wait, maybe not entirely fresh. An hour in, the rose turns quite powdery, but still with a green edge that’s in fresh roses. I also caught a whiff of what I swear is specifically Bulgarian rose (thanks for the lovely lady that let me smell her 100% Bulgarian rose oil at an event).

YSL Libre
Hmm so I don’t get a strong impression of the lavender, or even vanilla, that this perfume is all about. Most of what I detect is a floral mix, but there’s a strange artificial quality to it. It feels like a 8-bit pixel image equivalent in smell to like 1080HD. I do get the fougere characteristic of it, and feel it is quite masculine. Wait, I take back the 8-bit comment, because a gorgeous white floral note came up about an hour in that smells wonderful and not at all artificial (despite it being more likely a synthesized molecule than one extracted from real flowers). I faintly detect some woody notes within the white flowers, perhaps the cedar? After the strong entrance of the white florals, the artificial feel came back. I think it's actually the lavender that's giving me this impression, which is strange since I'm usually a fan of lavender. The vanilla did appear in the dry down.

Georgio Armani Si Passion
Another fruity floral (red berries and roses I believe). The rose is not especially prominent to me, seems more like watery florals, carrying a strong berry quality. Again not my taste but it is pleasant. The berries stay throughout the dry down.